Wrangler National Finals Rodeo wasn’t always a Las Vegas event

It’s cowboying’s annual Super Bowl and this year’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo is observing its 40th anniversary at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center.

Thanks to efforts by nonprofit Las Vegas Events, the local coordinator for the National Rodeo Cowboy Association-sponsored rodeo, NFR should celebrate its 50th anniversary in Las Vegas with a contract extension keeping the 10-day event here through at least 2035.

But Las Vegas wasn’t always the home of NFR. It took community leaders’ power of persuasion, the bright lights and action of the city — and lots of cash — to lure the rodeo to Southern Nevada.

Since 1959, the championship rodeo has been at six venues in three cities over the years and PRCA organizers even flirted with taking the event to Florida.

The first National Finals Rodeo was staged at the Texas State Fair Coliseum in Dallas from 1959 through 1961. In a bid to draw bigger crowds, the rodeo moved to the Los Angeles Sports Arena from 1962 to 1964.

In 1964, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, put a bid in for the rodeo and hosted it at the State Fair Arena through 1978. In 1979, the rodeo moved to downtown Oklahoma City’s Myriad Convention Center where it stayed through 1984.

That was the year a contingent of Las Vegas businessmen, including downtown casino operator Benny Binion, current South Point owner Michael Gaughan and former Las Vegas Events President Herb McDonald approached the PRCA about moving the rodeo to Las Vegas.

In the early going, PRCA leadership took a straw vote to gauge interest in a move. It was 6-4 to keep it in Oklahoma City.

Then, Las Vegas sweetened the deal with new financial incentives. Binion even offered to pay the entry fee of all participating rodeo cowboys.

Breaking a tie

One of the board members pivoted, creating a tie vote, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s previous reporting. Former PRCA President Shawn Davis, a three-time saddle bronc riding champion and a member of both the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame, cast the tie-breaking vote to bring the rodeo to the Thomas & Mack. The Oklahoma City Council countered with an offer to build a new arena for the rodeo at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, but Las Vegas eventually won out and the Thomas & Mack Center staged its first NFR in 1985.

Over the years, the rodeo has grown larger with richer purses and more ancillary events. The resort community embraced the rodeo because December was a typically slow month in Las Vegas. Since its second year in Las Vegas, the Thomas & Mack Center has been sold out with around 170,000 tickets purchased each year — a sell-out for 329 consecutive performances. The event has become the Thomas & Mack Center’s biggest customer each year.

In 2013, the PRCA thought about moving the rodeo from Las Vegas to Kissimmee, Florida, near Orlando, which promised to build a special arena for the event. Las Vegas Events issued a press release announcing the planned move and the race was on to save the rodeo. The Dallas-Fort Worth area also jumped into the conversation and Las Vegas again had to mobilize to keep the rodeo from moving.

With former Las Vegas Events President Pat Christensen and former Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President and CEO Rossi Ralenkotter rallying the local resort community, a new contract extension was written and Las Vegas renewed the rodeo for another 10 years.

Fewer were as happy for that to happen than Karl Stressman, who retired as a PRCA commissioner after 12 years with the organization and 10 years of overseeing the rodeo.

“There’s no place like Vegas, when we come here and the cowboy hats are here,” said Stressman, who’s now the CEO of the Amarillo, Texas-based American Quarter Horse Association. “I can’t go anywhere in town where everybody isn’t continuously saying, ‘When the cowboys come to town, this is the coolest place in the world.’ For the community to embrace it and become Cowboy Town, it’s just electric,” he said in a 2014 interview.

“It creates a whole atmosphere,” he said. “Nobody can do this like Las Vegas can do it.”

COVID pause

The rodeo stayed at Thomas & Mack until 2020 when the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic hit and state officials imposed strict health restrictions that prevented the building from hosting the rodeo. Because gate receipts were imperative in generating revenue for prize money and the stock contractor, Las Vegas Events made the tough decision to give up the rodeo in 2020.

Because Texas health rules were less restrictive than Nevada’s, the rodeo shifted to Globe Life Field, the new home of the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball team. With its retractable roof and large capacity, NFR was conducted there for one year and was able to generate revenue for the purse and stock contract.

Even as Dallas-Fort Worth came to the rescue and made a pitch to keep the rodeo there, the cowboys themselves longed to return to Las Vegas. The Las Vegas contract was extended a year to make up for the COVID cancellation and Las Vegas Events went right to work extending NFR’s stay for another 10 years.

That extension was announced in June with Las Vegas adding $1.3 million to the prize purse and stock contract for the next two years and $1 million more a year for the duration of the contract through 2035.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.